Netanyahu made a secret visit to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secretly visited the United Arab Emirates on Sunday and met with the country’s president, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, an Israeli source familiar with the visit told CNN.

The source said Iran dominated the agenda, an arena where the two countries have deepened their cooperation, including during the current war with Iran.

The trip comes a month before Israel’s elections on October 27 and against the backdrop of heightened political controversy in Israel over reporting by Haaretz and The New York Times claiming that Bin Zayed had warned Netanyahu of a major Hamas operation days before the October 7, 2023 attack.

“The Atlantic” reported separately that Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, flew to Israel on September 26, 2023, to warn that Gaza would “explode.” And on Sunday, “The Wall Street Journal” reported that at least three Egyptian warnings were conveyed to Israel regarding Gaza, the last in a phone call with Netanyahu himself, just days before the attack.

Netanyahu’s office has repeatedly denied receiving any warning and has dismissed the reports as fabricated lies aimed at harming him electorally. But his rivals have used the accusations to make accountability for the failure to prevent the October 7, 2023 attack a central campaign issue.

After initial reports of a warning from Bin Zayed, the UAE Foreign Ministry said earlier this month that it “does not comment on media stories or speculation regarding conversations between government leaders,” but did not deny the call.

“When necessary, all relevant intelligence information has been communicated and continues to be communicated between the relevant entities,” the statement said.

An Israeli source familiar with the matter said Netanyahu’s office tried to persuade the United Arab Emirates to deny the report, but the UAE agreed only to issue a statement regarding the sharing of intelligence information.

Netanyahu’s Likud party then issued a statement, posted on the prime minister’s X account, claiming “open foreign interference” in Israel’s elections by the UAE-based Palestinian politician Mohammed Dahlan. The party offered no evidence for the claim.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu’s rivals have seized on the reported warning to renew their attacks on his handling of the events before October 7.

In May, Netanyahu’s office said the prime minister had secretly visited the United Arab Emirates in March, during the first days of the war with Iran, calling it a “historic breakthrough.” However, the UAE Foreign Ministry denied his claim at the time as “completely baseless.”

During the war, Israel is also said to have deployed an “Iron Dome” missile defense system in the United Arab Emirates, and Israeli officials have said security cooperation between the two countries has reached unprecedented levels.

Netanyahu has never made an officially acknowledged public visit to the United Arab Emirates.